3/25/11 - 4/3/11 We needed to "haul out" the boat to change the "zincs" (corrosion prevention) and possibly bottom paint (marine growth prevention ie. barnacles) so we went up the St. Johns river to Sadler Point Marina near Jacksonville. Everything went well - the bottom paint only needed touching up and the zincs were no problem. Still, all of this took a few days so we slept on the boat while it was out of the water entering and exiting via the ladder at the stern. We had a few other mechanical issues including a fairly severe fuel leak on the port injector pump, an engine that wouldn't start intermittently and an alternator that quit. Under normal circumstances these problems would not have taken very long but the lack of ground transportation complicates everything. I borrowed a car for the trip to the injector shop, took a taxi ride to the alternator shop and found out that seniors ride Jacksonville buses for free. Once you get a grasp of the bus routes everything gets easier. Only one problem remained. The aft head was acting up so I took it apart and found a half dollar size rubber valve was in need of cleaning. I took it out on the dock and with a water hose nozzle in one hand and the valve in the other I was going to spray it clean. The only problem was that the blast was more than expected and valve went flying into the St. Johns river forevermore in the company of fishes. We were now down to one head (head = marine toilet) in the forward cabin. The replacement valve was not available locally so, not wanting to wait for one to be shipped in, we were north bound again.
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